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PMS at state agency
01/25/2012

Testimony in Garland Circuit Court last week by several current and former employees of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services Division was that some of the clients they serve were known by the acronym PMS. It stands for politically mandated service — for clients who have clout and should be treated accordingly.

Hold on, gals. That headline doesn't mean we're about to go all sexist on you.

Testimony in Garland Circuit Court last week by several current and former employees of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services Division was that some of the clients they serve were known by the acronym PMS. It stands for politically mandated service — for clients who have clout and should be treated accordingly.

According to Bob Means, a psychologist for 37 years at the Hot Springs Rehabilitation Center, PMS broke the law when it meant housing, transportation, food and services for somebody not qualified under federal law. He blew the whistle in 2008. He said he told elected officials and got no response, except from the U.S. Office of Inspector General, which asked for more information that he supplied. Days after, he was fired by division chief Robert Trevino.

Trevino testified that he fired Means at the direction of Bill Walker, director of Workforce Education. Trevino contended, but offered no documented proof, that the move was part of a long-planned reorganization. He didn't explain what moved Walker to act suddenly from a vacation in the Cayman Islands, through a phone call to Trevino, himself vacationing at South Padre Island, Texas.

A state law protects whistle blowers. A Garland Circuit Court jury awarded Means $110,000 and his attorney, Scott Hickam, will be filing a claim for attorney fees. After a day of stonewalling, we finally got a response to this from Bill Walker. He'd have no comment on the verdict because he planned to appeal. PMS? No comment.

The governor's office said PMS is "a term we've never used, recognized or heard of before this matter." The office, of course, has referred people to a variety of state agencies including the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services Division, but has "never mandated that anyone be treated regardless of qualification."

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Bedbug Man
01/25/2012

by Tom Tomorrow

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Sex offender levels
01/25/2012

The following are the descriptions of sex offender levels, as taken from the Arkansas State Sex Offender Protocol Training Manual.

The following are the descriptions of sex offender levels, as taken from the Arkansas State Sex Offender Protocol Training Manual.

LEVEL 1: Typically offenders in this category have no prior history of sexual offending and the community can be protected with notification inside the home and to local law enforcement authorities. LEVEL 2: Typically offenders in this category have a history of sexual offending where notification inside the home is insufficient. Community notification requires notice to the offender's known victim preference and those likely to come into contact with the offender.

LEVEL 3: Typically offenders in this category have a history of repeat sexual offending, and/or strong antisocial, violent or predatory personality characteristics. These are individuals whose offense and criminal history require notification throughout the community. Offenders who appear for the assessment under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs or who fail to timely disclose the use of medications, individuals who fail to appear for any phase of the assessment, individuals who are aggressive, threatening, or disruptive to the point that SOSRA staff cannot proceed with the assessment process, and individuals who voluntarily terminate the assessment process having been advised of the potential consequences will be classified as being a Level 3 or referred to SOAC for Sexually Violent Predator status. LEVEL 4: Sexually Violent Predator refers to a person who has been adjudicated guilty of a sex offense or acquitted on the grounds of mental disease or defect of a sex offense that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sex offenses. The designation indicates that the highest and most visible means of community notification is required.

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Some like it big
01/25/2012

The champions of Big Government were on the march Sunday, converging at the state Capitol to demand less individual interference with government prerogatives. They seek harsher punishment for women who claim sole authority over their bodies. (Have such women not heard of sharing?)

The champions of Big Government were on the march Sunday, converging at the state Capitol to demand less individual interference with government prerogatives. They seek harsher punishment for women who claim sole authority over their bodies. (Have such women not heard of sharing?)

Speakers explained to the anti-abortion crowd that if God had wanted women to run their own wombs, he wouldn't have made government bureaucrats. Some people are suspicious of Big Government, but they weren't at the Capitol Sunday, and they aren't in the Republican presidential primary either. All the candidates there prefer government control over individual freedom in regard to abortion, even the one who calls himself a libertarian.

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The South likes a good story
01/25/2012

And Gingrich gave it to them. by Ernest Dumas

So well had the revival of Ronald Reagan's reputation gone for two decades that all of this year's Republican presidential candidates wrapped themselves in the mythical raiment of the great man and claimed his sacred mantle.

They floundered when Newt Gingrich took the Reagan mythmaking to heights none of them could match, since they confined themselves fairly loosely to the truth as they imagined it, and when the former House speaker assigned himself a central role in all the Reagan fables.

That is the story of the presidential race so far. When the unceasing debates went south, Gingrich claimed a great advantage. Southerners, or a good portion of them, are accustomed to a mythical view of history and celebrate it. And when a debater is unconstrained by facts or even a rough approximation of the truth, he gains a great advantage. So it was with Gingrich in South Carolina, and so is it likely to be in the Republican primaries across the South.

There were satisfying moments for Gingrich in the lusty South Carolina debates, such as when he savaged reporters on the panel of questioners, one for questioning his innuendoes that America's poor people were lazy freeloaders led by a black president who encouraged them, and another newsman for asking him to comment on one of his ex-wives' remark that he had asked her for permission to continue having sex with a young woman on his staff who had been his paramour for six years, but there were more illuminating moments than those.

There was the time in the second debate where he took a dig at former President Jimmy Carter, who had the day before criticized his racist innuendoes, and entwined himself with Reagan and with George W. Bush, the latter, of course, without mentioning his name. Bush is an unmentionable in the debates.

"Under Jimmy Carter," Gingrich said, "we had the wrong laws, the wrong regulations, the wrong leadership, and we killed jobs, we had inflation, we went to 10.8 percent unemployment. Under Ronald Reagan, we had the right jobs, the right laws, the right regulators, the right leadership, we created 16 million new jobs." As a young congressman, he said, he had joined Reagan in that great struggle, which included historic tax cutting and ending the Soviet Union.

Then, he continued, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton raised taxes, over his strenuous opposition, and unemployment soared again. Gingrich said he did his best as the speaker by pushing through a balanced federal budget for four years — the first four-year stretch like that, he bragged, since before the Great Depression.

Except for Reagan's 16 million new jobs in eight years, all of that was precisely the opposite of the truth.

Unemployment under Jimmy Carter never exceeded 7.8 percent. That 10.8 percent Gingrich mentioned? It was Reagan's, in 1982, not Carter's. No sooner had Reagan (with Gingrich's vote) pushed through the big income tax cut of 1981 than the deepest recession since the 1930s set in. Unemployment exceeded 10 percent for 10 straight months, the only time since the Depression. Under President Obama, it reached double digits—10.1 percent — one month.

Unemployment went down, not up, after Clinton's 1993 tax increase. The economy in his eight years created 22 million jobs. Gingrich didn't balance the budget for four years. The speaker doesn't have budgets, and he fought key steps that achieved four balanced budgets. The last three balanced budgets occurred after he was forced by his party to resign from the House in 1998. He didn't even vote on them.

All that job growth after Bush's tax cuts for which Gingrich shared the credit? Bush oversaw only one million new jobs, the worst eight years for jobs since World War II.

Gingrich called Obama "the finest food-stamp president in American history." He said more people were on food stamps under President Obama than under any president in history.

It's true. Food-stamp use goes up in recessions, particularly prolonged ones. But contrary to Gingrich's claims, Obama did not work to make more people eligible. The Bush administration expanded eligibility for food stamps, which caused the numbers to rise sharply late in his administration and in Obama's.

Food-stamp participation set a record, too, under Ronald Reagan and then again under George H. W. Bush while Gingrich was a House leader. He did not call them the best food-stamp presidents. Food stamps, by the way, are not a black phenomenon. The share of recipients who are white are more than a third higher than the share who are African-American.

None of these are matters on which reasonable men can disagree. They are facts. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has provided the jobs numbers every month since 1948, the Agriculture Department the food-stamp numbers since 1965, and anyone can access them in two minutes.

Gingrich was a trained historian but a practicing fabulist. Just what his party needs, but the country?

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Timberwood announces concerts
01/25/2012

The Little Rock Horror Picture Show announces event, too.

Magic Springs Timberwood Amphitheater has made several concert announcements for its upcoming season, and if you're a fan of country or contemporary Christian pop, you should probably just go ahead and move to Magic Springs. Do they let people live there? Maybe in the parking lot?

May 26: The Charlie Daniels Band

June 2 — Trace Adkins

June 9 — Third Day

July 7 — Gretchen Wilson

July 14 — Switchfoot

Aug. 4 — Justin Moore

Aug. 11 — Newsboys

Verizon Arena has rescheduled the concert by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly that had been slated for Nov. 20. The band is now scheduled to play March 17 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $37-$67.

The Little Rock Horror Picture Show, the fanged-and-betentacled sister film fest that sprang from the guts of the Little Rock Film Festival, is teaming up with the Central Arkansas Library System's Butler Center for Arkansas Studies to throw a "secret" screening and reception Jan. 31 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event is open to the public and will serve as an early sneak peek for the LR Horror Picture Show, which is scheduled for Feb. 17-19 at Market Street Cinema.

Attendees will be able to purchase passes for the Picture Show at the Butler Center event.

A short that Ray McKinnon directed and Times columnist Graham Gordy wrote and starred in a couple years ago is now on YouTube and Vimeo. You can see it on Rock Candy.

Gordy's currently writing for McKinnon's forthcoming Sundance series, "Rectify."

The premise sounds promising: "Rectify follows the life of Daniel Holden upon his release from jail after serving nineteen years on Georgia's Death Row before DNA evidence disputed the State's original case. Holden, who was only eighteen years of age when convicted and sentenced to die for the brutal rape and murder of a sixteen year old girl, returns to his family and to his hometown where the murder occurred and where many still believe he is guilty. Daniel spent all of his adult life waiting to die. Now he must learn how to live again or decide if he even wants to while others choose whether or not he will have that chance."

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Looking for gnat omens
01/25/2012

I flatter myself to think you might remember that for several Januaries past I've done some tall moaning and groaning in this space about how this is the worst month of the year. Far and away. Without a close rival. August is the second worst, I reckon, but only in the sense that Twice a Prince ran second to Secretariat in the Belmont. I know August, Sen. Quayle, and August is no January. by Bob Lancaster

I flatter myself to think you might remember that for several Januaries past I've done some tall moaning and groaning in this space about how this is the worst month of the year. Far and away. Without a close rival. August is the second worst, I reckon, but only in the sense that Twice a Prince ran second to Secretariat in the Belmont. I know August, Sen. Quayle, and August is no January.

But this year, in keeping with a resolution I made at the dawn of the month, I foolishly determined in 2012 to accentuate the positive, and January does have a few plusses to go with its abundance of minuses.

Its silver sunshine looks mighty good on the white-oak trees. The yellow broomsedge hides old dead pastures beneath amber waves as small as puddles and as big as lakes. You can walk in the woods without worrying about stepping on a snake. There are farkleberries. There are eagles. The cold wind coming down over the mountains is always clean, bluing the sky and stirring a kind of racial nostalgia for the Ice Age, when the glaciers pushed around our ancestors like so much moraine.

Driving the icy roads infuses a nice little change-of-pace outing with considerable suspense.

You don't do a lot of sweating in January so you can take a bath less often than the usual once a week. There's not as much street crime. It keeps all the big cats away, except for the snow leopards, and we never had much of a problem with them anyway.

It's so somber a month that you can go ahead with your solemn ceremonies like the Boy Martyr memorial without great concern that there'll be disruptive laughter from disrespectful wags along the parade route. Wags stay indoors in January boning up on their mots.

Here in Bug Tussle on the first sunny day around the end of January we have a tradition in which a critter emerges from its wintertime hidey hole to look for its lost shadow. That critter in Pennsylvania folklore is the groundhog; here it's not. Here it isn't the groundhog, or the hedgehog, or the wild boar, or the spirit of Wilbur, or the namesake of Hogwarts, or Boss Hogg or Bobby Petrino. Here it's the dog-peter gnat.

And here all the townspeople gather around the community's biggest-petered dog on the appointed day waiting for the legendary gnat to appear and assume its familiar circular flight path. We pass the time making bets on whether it will see its shadow if it does appear. And making further bets on what it means if it does see its shadow or if it doesn't.

We all try our hand at being a gnatpex, like the auspex or the haruspex of the olden days. Or most of us try our hand at it. Some just draw the shades and turn up the TV, believing that this whole dog-peter gnat business is just provincial hooey, tasteless, vulgar, and embarrassing.

Nobody knows where dog-peter gnats spend the winter. They might seal themselves up in tiny cocoons that are spun by their womenfolk or by trolls. They might hitch a ride with bears into designated hibernation caves. They might hide under the wings or in the toejam of certain of the locusts and cicadas and find themselves buried alive as their hosts settle in for those underground siestas that last for 17 years.

Or they might transmogrify back to the larval stage and attach themselves with homemade Gorilla glue to the backside of poison-ivy leaves to wait in dry dormancy for the April sun to pop them back into fully adult dog-peter gnattery. Or they might simply lay their eggs and croak, leaving it to the next dog-peter gnat generation to torment Phydeaux for no reason that any of the higher fauna can see, meaning those that have at least one cell of brain and a single lick of sense.

But those are just guesses. Nobody knows for sure. Nobody knows anything for sure about dog-peter gnats, including why you pronounce something with an "n" that starts with a "g."

It's also uncertain how a dog-peter gnat could see its shadow, even if it were big enough to cast one. Like the elder Oedipus, it has no eyes to see a shadow or anything else with, as far as I can tell, and seems to use its sense of smell to pilot in narrowing circles around the object of its affection. Even its sense of smell may be limited to that one distinctive scent that attracts only lady dogs in season and dog-peter gnats. It probably can't even smell a skunk, or a human's breath after Parmesan cheese.

There was a fistfight last year over what it means if the season's first dog-peter gnat does or doesn't see its shadow. I don't remember how the fight turned out, but I'm fairly certain that it's no omen whether it does or doesn't. It doesn't signify the date and time when the Rapture will rapture. It doesn't tell you whether to bet over or under on the Super Bowl. It doesn't predict who'll win the presidential election. God tells Pat Robertson things like that. Dog-peter gnats don't tell the rest of us diddly.

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Pat Green at Revolution
01/25/2012

Also 'Slow Southern Steel' at Market Street, Knuck Fest at Downtown Music, the Delta Exhibition at the Arts Center, Scott Biram at Maxine's, Black Oak Arkansas at Juanita's, Arkansas Big Buck Classic at the fairgrounds, the ASO at Robinson and the P.A.T.H. Benefit at Juanita's. by Robert Bell and Leslie Newell Peacock

THURSDAY 1/26

'SLOW SOUTHERN STEEL,' HAIL!HORNET, ZOROASTER

8 p.m. Market Street Cinema. $10.

If you have even a passing interest in heavy metal and/or Southern culture and you've not yet seen "Slow Southern Steel," then you won't soon get a better opportunity than this show. The film — the work of CT (of Rwake and Iron Tongue) and David Lipke — documents the vibrant underground metal scene in the South, and features Eyehategod, Down, Deadbird, Hank Williams III, Music Hates You and many other folks discussing everything from music history to religion to perceptions of the South to the tight-knit community that's arisen around this crusty, sludgy, louder-than-hell music. CT's currently on a 17-date tour with Hail!Hornet and Zoroaster, screening the film. As far as vibe goes, Hail!Hornet's got a real raw, nasty, bruising quality. The band is often described as a supergroup, understandably so considering the musical pedigrees involved (Sourvein, Bongzilla, Buzzov*en, Alabama Thunderpussy, Weedeater). But as good as those bands are, Hail!Hornet stands fully on its own raging, bludgeoning, misanthropic merits. The band's 2011 album, "Disperse the Curse" is 11 songs suffused with the groove inherent in a lot of Southern metal and always, always bowing at the altar of the bitchin' riff. Even the faster songs swing in a way that's unmistakable for fans of sludgy Southern metal. Zoroaster's spacy doom metal sounds like some sort of hybrid of Pink Floyd and Pentagram, beamed in from an alternate '70s where everything was way more awesome than it was in the actual '70s. If you were going to blast off to the furthest reaches of the cosmos in a shag-carpeted space shuttle loaded with a lifetime supply of Plutonian Nyborg, Zoroaster would be the exact right soundtrack. RB

FRIDAY 1/27

KNUCK FEST

6 p.m. Downtown Music Hall. $8 adv., $10 d.o.s.

Knuck Fest returns this year for another weekend-long extravaganza of sounds that are 100 percent crushing, heavy, brutal and/or raging. Friday kicks off with Fire to Reason, Crankbait, The Muddlestuds, Kill Crazies, Wraith, Sol Inertia, Story of the Eye and Holy Angell. On Saturday, you can catch Fallen Empire, Legions Await, Mainland Divide, Poisonwood, A Darkend Era, Auricle, Distiller, Veridium, Decay Awaits and Strange as Fiction. Sunday's lineup includes locals as well as several touring acts, including Stray from the Path, Cruel Hand, Structures, Betrayal, Counterparts, Snakedriver, Motives, Jungle Juice, God City Destroyers and Pose No Threat. The Saturday and Sunday shows start at 2 p.m., and the cover is $10 adv., $12 d.o.s., or you can get a weekend pass for $25. RB

FRIDAY 1/27

DELTA EXHIBITION

Jan. 27-March 28, Arkansas Arts Center, free

"9 Zen Nuns," a sculpture by Oxford, Miss., artist Rod Moorhead, is the Grand Award winner in the 54th annual "Delta Exhibition," the Arts Center's highly anticipated juried show of work by regional artists. This year's Delta includes 54 works by 50 artists in all media; to be eligible, artists must have been born or work in Arkansas and its contiguous states. Juror Tom Butler, executive director of the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Ga., waded through 900 works to make his selections; 31 of the artists whose works will appear in the show are Arkansans. Two Arkansans, David Bailin and Keliy Anderson-Staley, won Delta Awards, and locals scooped up honorable mentions as well. LNP

FRIDAY 1/27

PAT GREEN

9 p.m. Revolution. $20.

Pat Green is one of the giants of contemporary Texas singer/songwriters. Over the course of the past decade and change, Green graduated from self-released albums and small bars and dancehalls to major labels and much larger venues. He built his considerable fan base on the strength of his roots- and rock-tinged country, though his more recent albums have quite a bit more polish on them than those early DIY recordings. Expect a packed house for this one. Green also plays at Shooter's Sports Bar in Texarkana Thursday night and at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville on Saturday night. The opening acts are Brent Cobb and The Lost Trailers. RB

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FRIDAY 1/27

SCOTT H. BIRAM, LYDIA LOVELESS

8 p.m. Maxine's. $5 adv., $7 door.

Back in January of aught-four, I was down in Austin, Texas, for a visit, and a friend of mine told me about a local dude, a singer and guitar player name of Biram. We went to some tiny little club up on North Loop and started in on some drinking. After about a half-hour, this gnarly-looking ragamuffin in a ball cap and a hoodie shuffles over to the corner, sets up an amp, plugs in a hollow body guitar, lays a tambourine down on the floor (for stompin' on) and proceeds to start hollerin' out all these twisted, distorto-punk blues. It went well with the drinking. Now all these several years later, Biram still belts out the ragers, but he'll also write a country weeper that'll jerk the tears out of your head so hard you might catch whiplash. Exhibit A: "Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue." Still got it, has Biram, who's joined on this tour by his Bloodshot Records label mate Lydia Loveless, a fiery-haired singer/songwriter outta Ohio. She's just now recently old enough to drink on the legal, but can swing the heartache well above her years, and has earned comparisons to such illustrious performers as Loretta Lynn, Neko Case and Exene Cervenka. RB

FRIDAY 1/27

BLACK OAK ARKANSAS

9 p.m. Juanita's. $10 adv., $12 d.o.s.

Over the course of four decades, somewhere around 50 souls have passed through the ranks of Black Oak Arkansas. But there has been one constant, and that of course, is front man Jim "Dandy" Mangrum, who is widely considered the prototype for such raunch-tastic Wildman lead singers as David Lee Roth. Nowadays, like many rockers of his vintage, Dandy's stage presence is a bit more subdued than it was in the heyday of the '70s. But there's no denying the group's legacy in the history of not just Arkansas acts, but Southern rock as a whole. These days, though they might not be playing the same size venues as their contemporaries in Skynyrd or The Allmans, Black Oak is nonetheless one of the originals of the genre, still at it. The opening acts are Blind Opie and Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys. RB

FRIDAY 1/27

ARKANSAS BIG BUCK CLASSIC

9 a.m. Arkansas State Fairgrounds. $5-$10.

Apparently, back in the olden days, like before 1990 or so, there was rampant BS-ing among outdoorsmen about deer killing. You'd always hear about so-and-so's cousin, who, swear-to-God, killed a 48-point buck over in Boone County with a .22 short that was a direct hit to the heart. Nowadays, if you want to find out who bagged the biggest buck in the state, you can head out to this here annual event, with its certified judging and its rules and whatnot. There are awards for several categories and divisions, including muzzleloaders, bows and crossbows, modern weapons, ladies and youth. You can also scope some live deer, shop from hundreds of vendor booths, get your fill at the chili cook-off, check out knife-making demonstrations and plenty more. RB

SATURDAY 1/28

ASO: 'RUSSIAN WINTER'

8 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $14-$52.

The latest in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's Masterworks series features world-renowned Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev, who has performed with orchestras all over the globe. ASO Conductor Philip Mann told KTHV's Dawn Scott that Alexeev is "a true legend in his own time, a Russian performer that is so well respected all over the world, that not only is he sought after as a soloist by the great orchestras of the world, but he's on the juries of the Tchaikovsky competition, the Van Cliburn competition. It's a true coup for the Arkansas Symphony to be presenting him with us from our stage to our audiences." The program includes performances of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 "Classical," Shostakovich's Concerto for Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in C Minor "Little Russian." The program will be performed again on Sunday at 3 p.m. On Tuesday, ASO presents "Mozart Meets P.D.Q. Bach" at the Clinton Presidential Center, 7 p.m., $22. RB

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SUNDAY 1/29

P.A.T.H. BENEFIT

7 p.m. Juanita's. $10.

The Partnership Against the Trafficking of Humans is based in Kentucky, and seeks to provide a variety of aid to victims of this modern-day form of slavery. Max Records founder Burt Taggart has organized this benefit show, all of the proceeds of which will help P.A.T.H. to provide housing and other resources for rescued victims of human trafficking. Performers include Chris Maxwell of the Gunbunnies, Lenny Bryan of Ho-Hum and Isaac Alexander of Big Silver. "In my mind, those are — by generation — three of the best pop songwriters LR has produced," Taggart said by e-mail. RB

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Sex offender levels
01/25/2012

The following are the descriptions of sex offender levels, as taken from the Arkansas State Sex Offender Protocol Training Manual.

The following are the descriptions of sex offender levels, as taken from the Arkansas State Sex Offender Protocol Training Manual.

LEVEL 1: Typically offenders in this category have no prior history of sexual offending and the community can be protected with notification inside the home and to local law enforcement authorities. LEVEL 2: Typically offenders in this category have a history of sexual offending where notification inside the home is insufficient. Community notification requires notice to the offender's known victim preference and those likely to come into contact with the offender.

LEVEL 3: Typically offenders in this category have a history of repeat sexual offending, and/or strong antisocial, violent or predatory personality characteristics. These are individuals whose offense and criminal history require notification throughout the community. Offenders who appear for the assessment under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs or who fail to timely disclose the use of medications, individuals who fail to appear for any phase of the assessment, individuals who are aggressive, threatening, or disruptive to the point that SOSRA staff cannot proceed with the assessment process, and individuals who voluntarily terminate the assessment process having been advised of the potential consequences will be classified as being a Level 3 or referred to SOAC for Sexually Violent Predator status. LEVEL 4: Sexually Violent Predator refers to a person who has been adjudicated guilty of a sex offense or acquitted on the grounds of mental disease or defect of a sex offense that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sex offenses. The designation indicates that the highest and most visible means of community notification is required.

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Showcase showdown
01/25/2012

Round one of the annual Times showcase kicks off ThursdayTHE JUDGES by Robert Bell

2012 marks the 20th year of what became the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase. It was started in 1993 by the now defunct Spectrum Weekly, and the Times took it over a long about 1997. The winner of that first showcase? That'd be Substance, the Towncraft-era melodic hardcore band. The other winners, chronologically, were: Ho-Hum, Pokerface, Ashtray Babyhead, Big Cats, Big John Miller & The Direction, Brenda & Ellis, Big Silver, Mojo Depot, Runaway Planet, Salty Dogs, Grandpa's Goodtime Fandango, The Odds, Hannah Blaylock & Eden's Edge, Cooper's Orbit, 607, Velvet Kente, Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth and Tyrannosaurus Chicken.

So which band will be the 20th? Over the next six weeks, we'll find out.

Starting Thursday at Stickyz, four acts will square off each night for five judges, who will award points based on originality, song quality, musicianship and showmanship. The winner of each semifinal round will go on to the finals, March 2 at Revolution. The grand prize winner will net a bevy of great prizes and will be immortalized with a drink named in his, her or their honor at Stickyz.

Shining Rae

Shining Rae is the stage name for Shannin Watkins, a Magnolia native who graduated with honors from Louisiana Tech University in 2006 and moved to Baltimore for a job as a clinical lab scientist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Last summer, Watkins' melodic kiss-off "Dreaming" won the monthly Artists Access competition on OurStage.com. The prize was a mentoring session with industry vet and former Sony Music EVP Bruce Tyler, who has advised John Legend, Beyonce, The Fray among many others. Now based in Little Rock, Watkins has released a digital EP and two singles of catchy, soulful pop. Her songs range from sultry ballads to ear candy of the sweetest sort. Her single "Sugar" will get stuck in your head for days.

The Coasts

This Arkansas-Ohio duo — Ike Peters of Little Rock and Eric Mount of Lebanon — make a warm, reverb-heavy sound that will tickle the ears of anybody who dug Dr. Dog's "Easybeat," from a few years back. Check out "I Only Want You" from the band's self-titled album. The tune is spacious sounding, with a laid-back, ever-so-slightly wistful vibe, all jangly guitar strum and a simple beat, punctuated with a trumpet peeking out like a ray of sunshine through a cloud. The album was produced and mixed and mastered by, respectively, Isaac Alexander and Jason Weinheimer, whose track records are purt-dang near unimpeachable. Peters and Mount are wasting no time, though, and are already at work on a follow-up.

The Holy Shakes

The Holy Shakes hearken back to the heyday of Dischord-ant, rocking '90s hardcore. The Hot Springs quartet includes Bobby Missile on guitar, Brian Lee on bass, Justin Castleberry on drums and Bill Solleder — of Low Key Arts and Valley of the Vapors music festival — on vocals. Though the band hasn't yet recorded an album, you can check out some raw, pummeling demos (recorded last May by the eminent Will Boyd) on the band's Soundcloud page. The punishing, Drive Like Jehu-esque "Spray Paint Saint" will rock your ratty argyle socks off, while "One of These Days" and "Look into the Light" recall Fugazi at their leanest and meanest.

Vore

Fayetteville's Vore has mastered — and remained true to — mid-tempo death metal like no other band in the state, or arguably, in the country. Since 1994, the band (Page Townsley on guitar and vocals, Jeremy Partin on bass and Remy Cameron on drums) has released three full-lengths of chugging, classic death metal in the vein of Morbid Angel, Death, Bolt Thrower and Obituary. Vore has shared stages with many of death metal's leading lights over the years, including Deicide, Nile, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass and the mighty Manowar. The band's latest, 2011's "Gravehammer," has gotten glowing reviews from critics, including Metalreview.com's Jordan Campbell, who wrote that the album "further cements Vore as a death metal fan's death metal band."

The judges

Epiphany: Excellent local MC, whose new album is set to be released soon. You know him from his countless live shows and as the host of The Peabody Hotel's RiverTop parties.

Clay Fitzpatrick and Cheyenne Matthews: Hosts of the indispensable local program Shoog Radio, which broadcasts two hours of recorded and live-in-the-studio Arkansas music, as well as updates on all the live music happenings of Central Arkansas. The show airs every Monday from 1-3 p.m. on KABF Community Radio 88.3.

Sammy Williams: Singer and guitarist of Midwest Caravan; pithy blog commentator par excellence; possessor of categorical knowledge of musical arcana and auditory obscurities of all flavors.

Guest judge Mary Chamberlin: A fixture on the Little Rock scene since forever, she has operated lefty literature distributor Tree of Knowledge since the late '90s and spends a good deal of time on the road selling merch for Lucero.

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Graffiti
01/25/2012

One of the greatest gifts bestowed upon The Observer during our secretive, moonlit coronation at La Petite Roche down below the Junction Bridge some years back — with the mayor and the governor and a certain magical, wish-granting catfish in attendance — was the power and right to eavesdrop on any citizen of Central Arkansas within our earshot, anywhere, at any time.

One of the greatest gifts bestowed upon The Observer during our secretive, moonlit coronation at La Petite Roche down below the Junction Bridge some years back — with the mayor and the governor and a certain magical, wish-granting catfish in attendance — was the power and right to eavesdrop on any citizen of Central Arkansas within our earshot, anywhere, at any time. You'd be surprised what you can hear when part of your job description requires you to stick your big ears into other peoples' conversations. People are a lot more interesting than they give themselves credit for, especially when taken out of context.

For example, we were at a local Wendy's the other day grabbing lunch when we heard the following gem passed between two fellas: "These pickles," one said to the other, "taste like cucumbers!" Try the raisins next, dude. They remind me a lot of grapes.

Speaking of grabbing a bite, The Observer and the lovely war bride went out for lunch on Sunday, just the two of us for the first time in too long. One of the things you quickly learn when you have kids is that unless you've got a convenient grandmother or enough money to blow on a trusted babysitter every few weekends, the Together Time can get few and far between over the long haul. Luckily, Junior is finally getting old enough that not only can he be left home alone for short periods, he's pushing for that nibble at independence. While his mother was reluctant to leave him there sans parentis, The Observer — who saw Ma and Pa only at dawn and after dusk in the summertime at his age — is fine with it. Eventually, The Kid and his Old Man convinced her to see it our way.

Given that, The Observer is now dating this girl we once knew in college: a beautiful, charming young lass, who happens to be the woman we've been married to for dang near 15 years. A bit of caution and advice, young wedded folk, from one old married fart: Even if everything else goes great, it's all too easy to forget who the person you're married to really is, what with the duties attached to being Dad and Mom, and both busy besides at winning that bread Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. Rage against that forgetfulness together. Your hearts and the hearts of others depend on it.

We wound up at Vino's on Sunday afternoon, storied bar and sometime haunt of The Observer's troubled youth. Sure, we got the veggie pie instead of the Artery Clogger we both might have ordered at 22, but Yours Truly couldn't resist a beer. Some things stubbornly refuse to change.

We picked a corner table in the nearly empty restaurant, turned off the nearby TV, then sat there and waited on our pizza and just chatted about things. Not the bills or the funny noise the car is making or whether we need cat litter. Just things. We smiled a lot.

Over in the corner of the restaurant were a few parental units and a couple of kids, none of the children more than 6 years old. The Observer, having done our time in the gravel pile of fatherhood, isn't one of those restaurant snobs who look askance at parents who bring their children out to eat, even to a place with a microbrewery in the next room and old beer cans for decoration. Being a parent for awhile teaches you something else, thank God: the uncanny ability to put any voice created by a human being below the age of 8 on the Background Noise channel.

The Observer didn't notice the kids again until one of them came back from the bathroom with Mom. Vino's — being a beloved music venue and bar of some age and renown — has the prerequisite collection of bathroom graffiti, much painted-over and scribbled out and re-inked, some of it near-Sphinxian in its mystery. The men's room door, for example, is currently emblazoned with the word "Dongs" in magic marker, whether for reasons of instruction or sheer, gleeful vulgarity, we can't decide.

On the way back to the table, Mom was patiently noting to junior that though the restroom graffiti is part of the restaurant's decor, we should never, ever, under any circumstances, write on the walls at home. That would be a bad thing.

Ah, the joys of parenthood. Half instruction, half joy, half hoping for the best — or thereabouts. Honestly, we're a little fussy on the math. Whatever it all adds up to, though, two old married types over in the corner looked at each other and passed a knowing smile between us.

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Foiled again
01/25/2012

The cruel trap laid for Arkansans by the Chamber of Commerce, the Medical Society, the Farm Bureau and their mercenary cronies is now being systematically dismantled, rendered harmless by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The monied interests behind "tort reform" had planned on skinning the common people without interference; the Court has intervened, insisting the people be given a chance.

Last week, the Court unanimously ruled unconstitutional a provision of the "tort reform" law that declared some doctors eligible to give expert testimony in medical malpractice cases (essentially, those doctors on the side of the defendant), and others ineligible (those on the side of the victim). The law violated the separation of powers doctrine of the Arkansas Constitution, the Court said; only judges can decide who is permitted to testify. Legislators had hoped to protect errant physicians from retribution. The Supreme Court decision means that negligent and incompetent doctors will not be allowed to hide behind friendly witnesses after all.

This is the fifth time the Supreme Court has thrown out a portion of the "tort reform" law enacted by a captive legislature in 2003. Last December, the Court ruled that the legislature had exceeded its authority by attempting to impose a $1 million limit on punitive damages. A $42 million award was upheld in that case.

The fixers who'd planned on immunity from lawsuit for their misdeeds are now howling mad at being held accountable. In coming years, they'll spend great sums on judicial elections, most likely — that has been the pattern in other states — and encourage unscrupulous conduct by judicial candidates, hoping to install judges friendly to them. Independent Arkansas lawyers and judges are now studying ways to lessen the impact of big money and big lies in judicial races. More power to them, which is to say, more power to the people.

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The unknown soldiers
01/25/2012

The controversy over relocation of a clinic for veterans to an abandoned car dealership on Main Street is a testament to the country's fleeting patriotism. by Max Brantley

The controversy over relocation of a clinic for veterans to an abandoned car dealership on Main Street is a testament to the country's fleeting patriotism.

Politicians are quick with a salute and a tearful word on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The fighting military is also an ever-ready shield for congressional budget busters.

But when the troops come home from fighting our wars with adjustment problems, they aren't so cherished. For example:

The VA treats all kinds at its current center at 2nd and Ringo. Some have alcohol and drug problems. Some are having a hard time finding work. Some are haunted by their time in combat. Some need a meal. Others need help finding shelter. Some are homeless. They have in common two things — 1) they've actively sought help and 2) sunshine patriots promised never to forget them.

The city of Little Rock and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin haven't been sympathetic to the move to bigger quarters. They don't want the vets on Main Street. Many neighbors don't either. Mayor Mark Stodola reacted in angry indignation to the idea. He'd prefer to shunt them out past the neat rows of crosses in the National Cemetery to a more distant, poorer neighborhood. Veterans have thus been transformed from a collection of people to a singular community blight. It's misguided; it's hypocritical on the part of the flag wavers, and, in human terms, it's just sad.

I'd like to give the floor to Dr. Tina McClain, the chief of Central Arkansas Veterans Health Services and a psychiatrist. She wrote the following to the Downtown Neighborhood Association.

"Regardless of location, children in Little Rock are exposed to individuals with mental illness. Overall 1 in 4 people have some type of mental illness, and the idea that the 'mentally ill' are not already present in the area is simply wrong. They are there, and go unrecognized. They live their lives just like those fortunate enough to not have a mental health condition. Untreated or inadequately treated mental illness is one of many contributing factors to homelessness. The fear related to putting children at risk should be higher today since the street homeless already in the area are not in treatment.

"Evidence shows that this program will decrease the number of homeless on the streets, not increase the number. This program provides treatment. Several current enrollees in our program attended the DNA meeting Jan. 12, and never became hostile, aggressive, or otherwise displayed any behavior other than that of perfect ladies and gentlemen, despite the barrage of derogatory comments they heard. I would be surprised if most in attendance even knew they were 'homeless veterans.' One of those veterans, the speaker, was even challenged when he attempted to vote as a resident in the downtown area, presumably because he simply lives his life in the area and was not known to the DNA.

"Stigma and ignorance lead to fear, and fear exaggerates perceived risks. CAVHS, regardless of our clinic location, will continue to combat this stigma through education, responsiveness, and compassion. CAVHS will staff the clinic with VA police officers to address any problems requiring police intervention. Again, not all veterans treated in our Veterans Day Treatment Program suffer from mental illness.

"Lastly, it should also be recognized that the proposed site for the [city of Little Rock] Day Resource Center on Confederate Blvd is also near a neighborhood, though not as large a neighborhood, and is near a magnet school. I don't believe the risks would be any higher to the children in the downtown location than at the Confederate Blvd. location."

I'm inclined to believe her.

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Chamber tax grab
01/25/2012

Little Rock voters last September approved $6 million of new city sales taxes to be stockpiled in a cash fund for future "economic development" purposes.  No further specifics were ever offered by Mayor Stodola for the use of this $6 million.

Chamber tax grab

Little Rock voters last September approved $6 million of new city sales taxes to be stockpiled in a cash fund for future "economic development" purposes.  No further specifics were ever offered by Mayor Stodola for the use of this $6 million.

Similar to the chamber's management of the tax campaign, I think there is little doubt about the chamber's hand working its will on this $6 million of taxpayer cash.

When does "enough" become "enough?" Apparently never when it comes to the chamber's appetite for Other Peoples Money.

Jim Lynch

Little Rock

While we squeezed-to-death citizens count pennies and hoard coupons to afford our groceries, the chamber appears to take umbrage at any attempt to determine accountability for their actions and expenses. Their smugness insults the people they profess to "represent and enhance."

As an intense lover of Little Rock, and a believer in her potential to be a GREAT destination, I urge you to keep your laser on this issue. And, while you are sleuthing, help us lowly citizens understand the alleged value-added objectives of our recently voted tax increase. We still don't know on what, and where, these newly minted dollars will be spent. It's every citizen's job to be vigilant about the constructive use of our taxes.

Rita Mitchell-Harvey

Little Rock

Cuts all around

Most of the Republican candidates propose various voodoo economic schemes involving reducing government revenue by taxing the rich less. Only one Republican candidate seems to be serious about reducing spending significantly (about $1 trillion per year, he says) and he doesn't have a serious chance of being nominated or winning the election. The rest, no better than the Democrats with their 10 to 20 year plans to go far deeper in debt before balancing the budget, are just kicking the can down the road in the hope that we will be able to continue kicking it or that they won't be around to account for our national failure.

Seems to me that the only real answer to our dilemma is to cut almost everything, some expenditures entirely including welfare for the rich, some slightly such as welfare for the poor and the vast American military empire spread around the world. Clearly, Social Security and Medicare too must be cut although most of that has to be imposed on future beneficiaries. Everyone seems to insist that his own sacred cow be spared but we are in far too deep already for anyone to completely escape what must be done. If Americans are unwilling to make sacrifices to rebuild our economy, we will have no national security. Our funding of China's military build-up will continue at an accelerating rate, at our expense instead of theirs, and we will eventually have to pay them for protection and do as they require.   

The bottom line here seems to be that all Americans have to step up to make a significant shared sacrifice. America's "Greatest Generation" has to be ours. There's no avoiding the fact that "Sacred cows make the best burgers."

Al Garrett Jr.

Perryville

Out-of-town love

My wife and I will be visiting Little Rock in mid April and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about your city via your Dining and Entertainment guides, as well as the several unique features about your neighborhoods like Riverdale, The Heights, and Hillcrest.  I feel we're getting a true local's perspective and we're excited about being guests in your city and exploring local merchants and restaurants.

Of particular value was the recent feature on living downtown, written by Kelley Bass.  We're staying at one of the historic hotels downtown, so it was quite enjoyable (and valuable) to learn about downtown Little Rock from someone who lives there.

I hope the merchants and restaurants you list in the various guides recognize the value you're providing to visitors. To be frank, I learned significantly more by spending a couple of hours on the Arkansas Times site than I did on the LittleRock.com tourism site.

Thank you for helping me plan our visit, and we look forward to visiting your city.

Jim Hofman

Naperville, Ill.   

From the web

In response to a post on the Arkansas Blog about the Northwest Arkansas Times' refusal to publish the wedding announcement of a gay Arkansas couple marrying in another state. Though we don't have a regular marriage feature, the Arkansas Times is happy to publish news of same-sex marriages as a counterweight to discrimination the couples experience elsewhere.

My blessings are many for I am a gay Canadian. I can get married, have my spouse make medical decisions for me, visit me in hospital, adopt children to love, and of course, get married and announce it in the paper. I don't however rest on these rights I have as a recognized legal human being. My feeling is that we all share the planet and therefore human rights should be something as simple as any indelible right. I wish American gays could have the freedom I have. The fact that you will publish same-gender wedding announcements, especially in the Southwest, makes me see that perhaps this dream for my American brothers and sisters will come true. Thank you for encouraging these loving couples to share their love with their communities as any one else would. It helps to show we are no different in that we love, we cherish and we want to share. If I lived down your way I would be a regular subscriber to your newspaper. I think it's only right to support those who act on the side of good.

Jaclyn Bush

Burlington, Ontario

Submit letters to the Editor via e-mail. The address is arktimes@arktimes.com.

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N.Y. Congressman Hinchey won’t run again
01/19/2012

KINGSTON, N.Y., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., will leave Congress at the end of the year, his office said Wednesday. The Hill reported Hinchey will formally announce his intentions to retire from the House in Kingston, N.Y., Thu...

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Poll: Economy Still Bush’s Fault
01/19/2012

A new poll found that three years into the Barack Obama Presidency, a majority of Americans still believe President George W. Bush is to blame for economic problems in the United States.

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Obama Rejects Keystone
01/19/2012

President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that he would not bow to Congressional pressure as he announced that he was rejecting a Canadian firm’s application for a permit to build and operate the Keystone XL pipeline, the massive project that would have connected Canadian oil sands with refineries in Texas.

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Shuttle Exhibit Breaks Ground In Florida
01/19/2012

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Officials in Florida said groundbreaking has begun on a $100 million exhibit to hold the retired shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Visitor Complex officials said the 65,000-square-

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Cape Canaveral Set For First 2012 Launch
01/19/2012

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Forecasters at Cape Canaveral in Florida say weather conditions look good for the first launch of 2012, set for late Thursday. A Delta IV rocket carrying a next-generation military communications satellite is

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Scanners Could Reveal Concealed Weapons
01/19/2012

NEW YORK, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- New York City police say they are testing a new way to find concealed guns by using radiation scanners that can detect people carrying firearms. NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the new technology can reveal a fir

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China To Demand Bloggers’ True Identities
01/19/2012

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- China says it is expanding a program requiring people to disclose their real identities to authorities before posting comments on popular blogging services. Wang Chen, the government's top Internet regulator, said Wednesd

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Study: Texting Doesn’t Relieve Stress
01/19/2012

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A person who is stressed and sends a text message rather than picking up the phone or seeking comfort in person doesn't get satisfaction, a U.S. study says. Anthropologist Leslie Seltzer of the University of Wiscons

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EU imposing more sanctions on Syria
01/19/2012

DAMASCUS, Syria, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Amid calls for tough measures against Syria over its crackdown on protesters, the European Union said it is planning further sanctions against the country. EU spokesman Michael Mann said Wednesday the EU plans furthe...

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Sean Michel plays Stickyz
01/18/2012

Plus the Rally for Reproductive Justice.

THURSDAY 1/19

Gospel blues rocker Sean Michel plays Stickyz with Noah James and Annalisa Nutt, all-ages, 8 p.m., $6 for 21-and-older, $8 for 20 and younger. David Kimbrough Jr. and Lucious Spiller (see also: Saturday To-Dos) play White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $7. Party band extraordinaire Tragikly White plays at West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 p.m., $5.

FRIDAY 1/20

For a night of electro pop, Dylan & The Zoo Crew headline at Triniti Nightclub, midnight, $10. Over at Vino's, you can check out the next wave of up-and-coming local bands, with The Tricks, Swampbird and Ezra Lbs, 8 p.m., $8. Velvet Kente — the standard-bearers for soulful, intense rock — play White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $7. At ZaZa's Conway location, psych-blues duo Tyrannosaurus Chicken plays a free show, 9 p.m. The band also plays White Water Tavern Saturday night. Get a taste of what's to come at this year's Wakarusa with the Waka Winter Classic, an 18-and-older show at Stickyz, with Culpepper Mountain Band, Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys, Chillyrose, Starroy and War Chief, 9 p.m. Reproductive Justice and Human Rights is an interactive workshop featuring Loretta Ross of SisterSong, Philander Smith College, 7 p.m. The Harlem Globetrotters bounce into Verizon Arena, 7 p.m., $22-$109. Down in Hot Springs, Maxine's hosts Pearl Street Riot and Central Arkansas's finest purveyors of psyche-garage-country mania, The Frontier Circus, 8 p.m., $5. Also in Spa City, you can catch a screening of the documentary "The Natural State of America," about Carroll Electric's use of toxic herbicides. Includes a Q&A with the filmmakers, Central Theatre, 7 p.m., $5.

SATURDAY 1/21

There will be a Rally for Reproductive Justice at the State Capitol, 1 p.m. Butterfly with Irie Soul bring some New Orleans sounds to The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. Singer/songwriter, road warrior and acoustic guitar shredder Eric Sommer returns to Midtown, 12:30 a.m., $5. Attn: ladies, The Chippendales Cuff 'N' Collar Tour is at Discovery Nightclub, 9 p.m., $22.50 adv., $25 door. Also at Discovery are DJs Brandon Peck, Ewell and Andy Sadler and performers Dominique Whitney and Zia D'Yor. Up in Mountain Home, Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives play the Arkansas State University campus, 7 p.m., $20-$30. T. Jay with Livesosa, DJ J$outh, Reverse and The Real Deal are all at Vino's, 9 p.m., $8. The Diamond Dames Burly-Q Revue hosts dancers from Memphis and Hot Springs with local comedian Amy Pannell serving as emcee at Juanita's, 18-and-older, 9:30 p.m., $10.

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The Chamber of Commerce tax
01/18/2012

Thanks to citizen watchdog Barry Haas, we learned last week that the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce is working to increase its hidden tax on Little Rock residents. by Max Brantley

Thanks to citizen watchdog Barry Haas, we learned last week that the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce is working to increase its hidden tax on Little Rock residents.

It wasn't mentioned in daily newspaper coverage of the Central Arkansas Water Commission meeting, but Haas reported the water utility's CEO, Graham Rich, had proposed a 100 percent increase in the subsidy that CAW sends to the Chamber each year — from $25,000 to $50,000.

The chamber works on economic development and Rich reasoned that those efforts increase business for the water utility, though proof is in short supply. The city of Little Rock sends out the same message when it gives the chamber $200,000 each year.

I first wrote about the chamber shakedown of taxpayer- and ratepayer-funded agencies in 2009. Support has been edging up in the form of membership fees and direct contributions. The city has held firm at $200,000. But the Wastewater Utility has moved up to $25,000 a year. The Little Rock Port Authority gives $15,000. UALR gives $7,500. UAMS gives $7,000. The Little Rock National Airport gives almost $1,000 in membership fee and has underwritten special events. The Central Arkansas Library System also pays a membership fee, but makes no direct subsidy. Pulaski County government, thanks to resistance from County Judge Buddy Villines, is still not a contributor.

A quarter-of-a-million a year in public money is not chump change. Some of it is paid from foundations (UAMS and UALR), to avoid serious state constitutional questions about public payments to a private corporation, at least in those two instances. But it doesn't cure the lack of transparency in funding decisions made outside public view. The chamber, apart from pro forma reports on its activities, also refuses to specify how the public money is spent.

The chamber has conceded that public money subsidizes staff pay, including that of CEO Jay Chessir. You may remember he was the secret manager of the city sales tax campaign that will produce $22 million for a technology park created by a law written by the chamber and to be administered by a chamber-controlled board. He was the face of the chamber when it brought in a lawyer to fight disclosure of city tax campaign expenditures. He's an official of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose politics are so repugnant that local chambers try to distance themselves from direct association.

The chamber gets this hidden tax without a bidding process for its supposed economic development services. It spends the money without accountability. It pays people who lobby the legislature and Congress on issues — working conditions, environmental regulation, health care, taxation — on which there are sharp divisions of public opinion.

Graham Rich has explaining to do, first for his conflict of interest as a board member of the Little Rock Chamber. His devotion to the chamber is also more evidence of the water utility's retreat from give-no-quarter defense of the Lake Maumelle watershed since the retirement of Jim Harvey. Rich has worked to accommodate corporate interests by working out deals with watershed landowners and developers.

Coincidentally, one of the chamber's most influential members is Deltic Timber, the biggest single land owner in the watershed. Its lobbyist — whose other clients include the anti-regulation Koch Industries interests — has helped the forces that have watered down proposed land use rules for the watershed and may yet defeat them altogether.

It is one thing for corporate interests to work against clean air and water and other public and human benefits. It is another thing to make utility ratepayers and city taxpayers help pay for it.

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